Modelling Interactions between Climate, Environment and Economy

On February 1st, following the CLUe Lunchtalk by Dr. Andrea Roventini, a group of researchers will meet to exchange ideas on modelling climate-economy interactions. 

Since William Nordhaus published his Nobel-prize-winning Dynamic Integrated model of Climate and Economy (DICE), scientists have tried to capture the intensely complex and multidisciplinary processes of climate policy making into so-called "Integrated Assessment Models" (IAMs) to provide tools for users from academic researchers to climate policy makers. Simple Models like DICE have been used, for example, to determine the optimal value for the carbon tax. On the other hand, many researchers strongly criticise simple IAMs as being "close to useless" and even misleading, implying a sense of certainty about quantities like the economic loss inflicted by a 4 degree global warming, while in fact the models are based on rather crude assumptions and educated guesses. 

In recent years, many more complex and detailed IAMs have been built. But which statements or policy recommendations can or cannot be made based on them? Do recent IAMs fix the problems of their simpler predecessors? Should additional processes or policy options be included into them, or can we expect a complete revolution of Integrated Assessment Modelling from recent development in agent-based models? 

On February 1st, reserachers from CCSS will meet guests from inside and outside the UU - including the CLUe speaker Andrea Roventini and former secretary of state Rick van der Ploeg - to discuss ongoing work, challenges and future research paths in modelling the interaction between climate, environment, and economy. 

All interested reserachers are welcome to join!

Please register here for the CLUe talk by Andrea Roventini (12:00-13:00) and the Workshop (from 13:30).